The gate construction embodying the present invention is an improvement on shopping cart basket gate constructions disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,503,622 (Romero), 3,245,498 (Stanley et al), and 3,815,932 (Ruger). The aforementioned patents disclose carts used by customers to transport articles in a supermarket to a checkout counter, more particularly of the type wherein the upper or primary goods basket includes a fixed rearward portion and a pivoted forward portion. The pivoted forward portion has a bottom wall, sidewalls and a forward end wall and is pivoted on a substantially horizontal, transverse axis along the rear edge of the bottom wall. Thus, the forward portion of the basket when in a goods receiving or use position extends forwardly from the rear basket portion and with its bottom wall substantially horizontal. On the other hand, the forward basket portion can be pivoted upwardly about its pivot axis to a storage or nesting position wherein the bottom wall thereof is substantially upstanding. The end wall of the forward basket portion is defined by a gate panel pivotable generally along its bottom edge and which in an opened position is adapted to lie for example atop a checkout counter to form a bridge or a continuation of the basket bottom wall to facilitate transfer of goods from the cart basket with little or no lifting.
In each of the above-mentioned patents, the gate panel must be manually manipulated by either the customer or the checkout clerk to effect opening of the gate, which manipulations normally involve an upward lifting of the gate followed by a forward swinging of the gate into its open position. When in this open position, the gate projects forwardly of the basket and is normally permitted to rest on the top of the checkout counter. In other instances it is not permissible to rest the gate on the end of the checkout counter, such as those installations where the end of the checkout counter is occupied by a scale. It is then necessary to swing the gate downwardly whereby it is freely suspended downwardly below the basket. While gates of this type do operate satisfactorily with respect to their manual manipulation between open and closed positions, nevertheless the position of the gate when in its open position has created various disadvantages associated with unloading of the cart.
For example, when the end of the checkout counter is equipped with specialized equipment, such as a scale, the gate can not be pivoted downwardly onto the scale since this interferes with the operation thereof. The gate must thus be swung outwardly and then downwardly so as to be suspended below the basket. This is undesirable for several reasons, the first of which is that the gate must be swung into its open position while the front end of the basket or cart is spaced rearwardly a substantial distance from the end of the checkout counter. Sine opening of the gate is normally the function of the checkout clerk, it is often difficult for the clerk to reach the required distance to effect an efficient and convenient opening of the gate. Further, after the gate has been opened and the basket unloaded, it is also difficult for the clerk to reach downwardly and swing the gate upwardly into its closed position.
In other instances, the gate is swung downwardly and positioned on the free edge of the counter so as to not interfere with specialized equipment located adjacent the end of the counter. When unloading the basket, it is thus more difficult for the clerk to reach the rear of the basket so as to remove the goods therefrom. Further, any slight rearward movement of the basket results in the gate dropping off the counter, which can be damaging if any goods are resting on or being slidably moved across the gate.
The disadvantages associated with resting the gate on the counter are further compounded by the recent adoption of automatic cash registers for recording the cost of the goods. With these systems, the checkout counter is normally provided with a price scanning window located directly adjacent the inlet end of the counter, which window has a suitable light beam located thereunder. The checkout operators removes the goods from the basket and then slowly slidably moves same across the window so that the bar code on the goods, which is indicative of the price, is thus scanned and, through an intermediate computer, is automatically recorded in the cash register. It is thus essential that the scanning window remain unobstructed. Since many of the present checkout counters, when utilized with a swingable gate of the above-described type, result in the opened gate overlapping the scanning window, this thus prevents proper operation of the automatic price recording system. In these instances, the cart must be backed away from the counter so that the gate does not overlap the scanning window and, when this is done, the problems set forth above are then experienced.
Accordingly, it is an object of this invention to provide an improved gate construction for a shopping cart which overcomes the disadvantages mentioned above. More specifically, the objects of this invention include the provision of:
1. An improved gate construction for a shopping cart basket which can be easily and efficiently swingably opened and then moved into a storage position wherein the gate is disposed parallel with, but below the bottom of the basket.
2. A gate construction, as aforesaid, in which the gate is initially swingably moved outwardly and downwardly away from its closed position into a substantially horizontal position, and can then be slidably moved horizontally rearwardly of the basket into a storage position wherein the gate is located beneath the bottom of the basket adjacent the front end thereof.
3. A gate construction, as aforesaid, which permits the front end of the basket to be positioned directly adjacent or in overlapping relationship with respect to the end of the checkout counter to facilitate the unloading of the goods onto the counter, thereby enabling the checkout clerk to more easily reach the goods located in the rear of the basket, and at the same time permitting storage of the gate under the bottom wall of the basket to prevent it from interfering with any equipment located on the end of the checkout counter, such as a scale, a price scanning window, or the like.
4. A gate construction, as aforesaid, which when in the stored position beneath the bottom wall of the basket can be easily pulled outwardly therefrom and then swung upwardly to permit reclosing of the gate.
5. A gate construction, as aforesaid, which in addition to being storable in a position disposed substantially fully under the basket bottom wall, can also be partially moved backwardly under the basket bottom wall into a partially stored condition while still permitting pivotal movement of the gate so that it can be swung downwardly onto a counter or the like in those instances where such operation is desired.
6. A gate construction, as aforesaid, particularly adapted for integration with a shopping cart basket of rod and wire mesh construction and which can be provided on a shopping cart without requiring any major redesign or reconstruction of the cart.
Other objects and purposes of this invention will be apparent to persons acquainted with apparatus of this general type upon reading the following specification and inspecting the accompanying drawings.